GLOBAL NEWSPAPER PROBLEMS
Timothy J. McNulty is the Public Editor of The Chicago Tribune. He's written a piece entitled 'Things That Drive Our Readers Crazy', and you can find it online here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped0622mcnultyjun22,1,6496501.column?ctrack=1&cset=true
Many of the complaints Timothy has raised are the kinds of things that upset and annoy newspaper and magazine readers around the world. I can personally identify with many of them, having been on the receiving end of a few too many such calls during my time in the UK. Thankfully I haven't had a single reader complaint since I have been here - but I think that's down to the Thai language issue than anything else.
3 comments:
Hi Andrew,
Can't access the link to Chicago Tribune there. Only subcribers are able to apparently.
Weird. I can access it but I'm not a subscriber. Anyway, here it is in full ...
Things that drive our readers crazy
Published June 22, 2007
Judging from my inbox and voice mail, there are at least 20 things that regularly drive readers crazy. After more than a year in this job, I suspect there are even more, maybe twice that, and I expect you will tell me about them.
I grouped your messages in three categories. Journalists like to believe the link with readers is all about journalism, but the other big issues involve the production and distribution of the newspaper and the way it communicates with its customers.
Let's start with production and distribution and I'll give you some ideas to help resolve problems:
*Wet papers. Rain happens. Call the number for circulation; it is printed on Page 4 every day. 1-800-Tribune (874-2863). If you call early in the morning, the circulation department will replace it or give you a credit.
*Ink-smudged pages. A quality-control issue that the paper wants to know about.
*Missing papers (or sections). Things can go astray while producing and distributing nearly 570,000 copies every weekday and more than 940,000 on Sunday so don't just stew on your driveway or doorstep. Call early for a replacement.
*No more individual stock listings. Horse racing results and merit scholarship winners all were moved online in the last year. This is partly a journalism issue because judgments are made on what to use in the available news space, which is based largely upon how much general advertising support the edition has.
*Crossword puzzle errors. Corrections for puzzles and everything else are posted on Page 2 as soon as the error is discovered.
*Loss of a favorite cartoon. A similar issue occurs when the daily almanac does not note particular anniversaries, especially from World War II. Other days readers want flagged: Flag Day and the anniversary of tragedies such as President John F. Kennedy's assassination.
Another crossover issue between journalism and advertising happens when favored features move to different pages or days. Putting the weather map on the inside of the last page in Metro drew protest; so did moving the book review to Saturday from Sunday.
Communications:
*Transferred calls. Readers want someone to take responsibility -- finally -- for answering or finding an answer to their question or problem. One tip: Each section has an information box labeled "How To Contact Us," usually found on the second page.
*Voice mail hell. Not being able to talk to a real person is maddening. Often reporters are not in the office (or don't pick up their phones) and readers are sometimes connected to the wrong person (who also may not pick up his phone). Two years ago, the newspaper began putting the e-mail addresses of reporters at the bottom of their stories. They "hear" what you have to say, even if they don't respond directly to every message.
*No answer. Readers are frustrated when they call the Tribune's main number after business hours and cannot even leave a voice mail message.
*Accents. Some readers say they cannot understand customer service agents who speak in heavily accented English. Many American businesses, including the Tribune, have outsourced their call centers overseas. People also get upset when telephone reps don't know local cities and suburbs.
Journalism:
*Dumb grammatical mistakes. Readers hold the newspaper to its own standards. Not using an apostrophe when appropriate (its when it should be it's and your when it should be you're) is indeed a newspaper sin.
*Headlines that don't say anything. They obviously fit the space, but the reader still wonders what the story is about.
*Stories they don't agree with. This is similar to stories that readers suspect reflect a bias of the reporter. This is a tough one because if people agree with the story, they rarely see bias.
*Omissions. On Tuesday the Tempo section listed many but not all the World's Fairs since 1851. The reporter, Charles Storch, did not list New York in 1964-65 because it was not an internationally sanctioned World's Fair. But 51 million people did attend. Storch got nearly 30 calls and messages and a clarification ran in Thursday's paper.
*Location, location, location. Chicagoans are quick to point out incorrect street addresses and intersections, ward and neighborhood names. A mapping tool wrongly placed Cardinal Francis George's mansion in the middle of the 1500 block of North State Parkway. It's on a corner.
There are city-defined neighborhoods, and the boundary between Grand Crossing and Chatham is precise. But there are also areas of identity like the West Loop and other Realtor-defined areas.
Those who make such mistakes should expect to be reviled. Also, Downstaters know the difference between a state highway and an interstate highway. My ears are still ringing after chicagotribune.com used a really old locator map that identified Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel.
*Opinion columns. I still get mail lamenting the loss of syndicated columnist Molly Ivins, who died in January. As for political endorsements, well, it all depends.
*Accent this. There is a danger in using foreign words improperly, especially when the accent marks point in the wrong direction.
*Foreign languages. Even correct spelling in another language can generate complaints. The current immigration debate adds controversy. Seeing advertising on a plastic delivery bag for the Tribune's Spanish-language publication Hoy sets some readers off.
*Stories with long, languid anecdotes. A problem when readers don't know what the story is about until they turn the page.
*Simple mistakes. Especially those a reader personally knows about. An editor here is still perturbed over a freelance reviewer who misidentified the keyboard player at a Mary Chapin Carpenter concert. That was in 1998.
----------
Timothy J. McNulty is the Tribune's public editor. He listens to readers' concerns about the paper's coverage and writes periodically about journalism issues. His e-mail address is tmcnulty@tribune.com. The views expressed are his own.
Thanks for that! :)
I can already pinpoint quite a few that irks me from the list.
Post a Comment